Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
November 14, 2018

Colony Club by Elegant Hotels launched its ultimate rum experience with the opening of The Rum Vault at the St James luxury hotel.

Director of Operations at Elegant Hotels, Gayle Talma said the initiative is in celebration of the hotel’s 70th anniversary, and she explained that management thought it fitting to refurbish the library at one of the island’s oldest hotels to create a state-of-the-art rum vault with a selection of 150 rums from Barbados and other parts of the world.

“There was no better place to put The Rum Vault than at Colony Club that ties in with the rich history of Barbados and rum. Barbados is the birthplace of rum and Colony Club goes way back to 1938,” Talma said, adding that the company wanted to give guests a Barbadian experience.

“We took this space and converted it to a rum vault to give our guests experience in tying in with things that are Barbadian, as rum is from Barbados. Food, cocktails, history, it is all about the rum ambassadors who take you through the journey to the different experiences they offer.”

The Rum Vault offers a four-course dinner experience which members of the media got to sample, and it was nothing short of delicious as all of the locally sourced ingredients were cooked with finesse by executive chef Wayne Maynard.

The Rum Vault has something for everyone—from the rum novice to the connoisseur—with intimate rum dinners such as the Storied Rum Dinner, Tales from the Vault, Kill Devil Vault Tapas, Rum and Chocolate Pairing, as well as rum tasting flights.

Talma said the hotel’s rum ambassadors Corey Sobers and Shane McClean teamed up with Maynard to match the cuisine with the rums offered in the rum vault to create the ultimate Barbadian experience.

“It is a four-course dinner that ends with a chocolate box where they match the rum with the chocolates,” she said, before handing the microphone over to Sobers who said the chocolate rum pairing creates an explosion in the mouth.

“What we did is we tried to treat rum like wine and we tried to pair rum with chocolate. The [locally] made scotch bonnet chocolate goes well with Mount Gay Black Barrel rum, as it creates an explosion with scotch bonnet pepper and chocolate,” he said.

General Manager at Colony Club, Joanna Roterberg said the hotel has a list of activities scheduled to celebrate the 70th anniversary with staff and guest.

“For this month, we will be celebrating the achievements of Colony with its guests, as we have a lot of longstanding guests with us. We have a list of activities….We will be venturing to the other two distilleries as well. We will be taking our guests to a day out at the races. We have quite a bit in store for the celebration and we are looking forward to the varied activities,” she said.

The Colony Club began its anniversary celebrations on Sunday, November 4 with a church service at the St James Parish Church, and will conclude on Sunday, November 25 with a buffet lunch in the Laguna Restaurant with music by the Casablanca Steel Orchestra. (LG)